THIS WEEKENDThe Dartmouth women’s volleyball team will close the 2016 season at home this weekend, hosting Brown on Friday and Yale the following day. Before the match against the Bulldogs on Saturday, the Big Green’s eight seniors will be honored, as they will be playing at Leede Arena for the last time. Both matches will start at 5 p.m.

LAST TIME OUTLast weekend, Dartmouth headed to New York for its final road matches of the year, falling to both Columbia (18-25, 23-25, 18-25) and Cornell (19-25, 21-25, 17-25) by scores of 3-0.

The next day against the Big Red, Abby Kott had seven kills and a .583 hitting percentage, which was better than anyone on Cornell’s team. Leonard had 16 assists and Emily Astarita ended the night with 10 digs.

SCOUTING BROWNThe Bears enter the weekend with a record of 5-17 and 3-9 in Ivy League play. Since facing Dartmouth the first time around a month ago, Brown has been having a hard time, going 1-6 against conference opponents. After five consecutive losses, it defeated Penn, 3-1, on Friday, only to fall to Princeton in straight sets the next day.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE BEARSOn Oct. 8, Dartmouth fell to Brown, 3-1 (11-25, 19-25, 25-21, 16-25) on the road. Brown jumped out to an early lead by taking the first set with a score of 25-11, winning the first five points until Dartmouth got on the board following an error by the home team. The Bears maintained the upper hand, going on multi-point runs to secure the victory.

An ace by Corinne Cox gave the first point to the Big Green in the second and soon, the visitors had a 3-1 lead. The Bears turned things around soon after to pull ahead (15-12). After trading points, Brown neared another victory with five in a row, but Dartmouth started to chip away at that lead by winning four of the next six points (23-19). The Bears shut the set down before the Big Green could get any closer (25-19).

Dartmouth capitalized on Brown errors in the early stages of the third set to lead, 5-3. The teams went back and forth and, following a Cox kill, Dartmouth had a 9-6 advantage. Three straight points by the home team tied the score at nine, but a trio by the Green after a kill by Lindquist and a pair of Bear errors gave the lead back to Dartmouth (12-9). Brown started to close the gap, tying the score (18-18), but two Brown errors and a kill by Lujan put the Big Green back ahead, 21-18. Brown started to catch up, but not before two errors by the Bears and a Kott kill gave Dartmouth its first win of the night (25-21).

Brown started the fourth set off with a 7-2 advantage, but Dartmouth soon cut that lead to three following a kill by Molly Kornfeind, an ace by Astarita and a deadly kill by Kott to make it 9-6. The Bears managed to extend their lead the longer the set went on and soon had a 20-12 edge. The Big Green got four more points off kills by Lujan and Kott and two errors by the Bears while holding the opponent at match point, but a Dartmouth error gave the win to Brown (25-16).

SCOUTING YALEThe Bulldogs will enter Friday’s game against Harvard with a record of 17-4 and 10-2 in conference play. They are currently on a five-match winning streak after handing Princeton its only Ivy loss of the season last weekend. Yale is second in the league.

LAST TIME AGAINST THE BULLDOGSOn Oct. 7, Dartmouth fell to Yale, 3-0 (17-25, 9-25, 20-25). The first part of the first set was evenly matched; although Yale got the first point, a kill by Lujan put Dartmouth on the board. The Bulldogs pulled three points ahead, but the Big Green picked up three of their own to make it a 4-4 set. Yale went on a 9-1 run (13-5), but Dartmouth managed to get within four points (13-9). Yale took control of the remainder of the set, shutting it down not long after (25-17).

Yale won the first three points of the second set, but Dartmouth took four of the next five points off kills by Lindquist and Kornfeind (4-4). The Bulldogs took a bit of a lead, but the Big Green got within four (11-7). From there, however, Yale took the lead and ran with it, scoring the next 13 points (24-7). Dartmouth scored twice more, but a Bulldog kill ended set two (25-9).

Dartmouth returned to the court for the third set as a different team, winning the first point from an Astarita kill and only getting better from there. The teams traded points until Yale won a handful in a row to make it 10-6. That lead was short-lived, though, as the Big Green took the next four points to tie the score at 10-all. There were two more ties before the home team started to pull away (19-15), but four consecutive points by Dartmouth made it 19-19. The Bulldogs won the next six of seven points – committing one error during that time – to end the match.

FOLLOW ALONGLive stats will be available on DartmouthSports.com. Those who subscribe to the Ivy League Digital Network (ILDN) can also watch the matches online. For updates on the team, follow Dartmouth’s new official twitter: @DartmouthVBall.